Country Billboard Chart News August 28, 2014

Country Billboard Chart News August 28, 2014

RIAA Certifications

In Brief:  Billboard Country Charts

Country Album Chart ** No.1 (1week) ** “Ignite The Night” Chase Rice

Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (5 weeks) ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

Country Airplay ** No.1 (2 weeks) ** “Drunk On A Plane" Dierks Bentley

Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (5 weeks) ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

In this easy-to-use format discover where your favourite acts songs and album are charting across the four Billboard Country charts. It is prioritized by the first column showing the Hot Country Songs chart frame standings for the week of August 30, 2014.

There are also separate rows highlighting Women of Country music.

Scroll down for further details on each of the individual charts.

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Chart News

Hip-hop star Wiz Khalifa earned his first No.1 album on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart ([BB200), as his new set titled “Blacc Hollywood” arrived atop the list. The album, which was released Aug. 19, sold 90,369 copies in the week ending Aug. 24, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Blacc Hollywood follows two No. 2-peaking albums from Khalifa: Rolling Papers and O.N.I.F.C., which were released in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Singer-songwriter and 2010 CBS Survivor: Nicaragua runner-up Chase Rice stormed in at No.3 on the BB200 and No.1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart (dated Sept. 6) with IGNITE THE NIGHT (Dack Janiels/ partnership with Columbia Nashville), his second full-length album and first powered by major-label muscle. It starts with 43,899 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Rice first gained fame as a contestant on the CBS TV series "Survivor: Nicaragua" in 2010. He later co-wrote the history making Florida Georgia Line monster single "Cruise" (No.1 for a record 24 weeks on Hot Country Songs). Within a few short years of moving to Nashville, country music artist Chase Rice has already built a loyal fan base across the country through his energetic live shows and gained the attention of industry professionals with his edgy, eclectic sound.

The LP marks Rice’s second entry on Top Country Albums; Dirt Road Communion, his first full-length, debuted and peaked at No.48 back on April 2012. He first released a six-song EP, Country As Me, in 2011. Rice delivered all three titles on his own Dack Janiels imprint.

For Ignite, he enlisted RED Distribution and Sony Music Nashville’s Columbia Nashville team for distribution and radio promotion, respectively. Sixty-five percent of the opening-week sum for Ignite stems from digital sales. The album has spawned 942,000 in digital track sales.

Critical reception for “Chase Rice - Ignite The Night” :

CD (import) - US iTunes - Smart Choice Music - Amazon.com

Allmusic (Rating: 3 STARS)....Like the Ready Set Roll EP that preceded its release in 2013 (and which contains a few cuts that carried over to this full-length LP), 2014's Ignite the Night finds Chase Rice ready to embrace bro-country with a pair of open arms. As the co-writer of Florida Georgia Line's record-breaking smash "Cruise," this is perfectly within Rice's rights and he's a commercially savvy songwriter, playing with clichés and crazes -- balancing songs

about trucks, beer, beaches, "Jack Daniels & Jesus," "50 Shades of Crazy" -- with ease. Like FGL or Luke Bryan, Rice makes no apologies for being polished, brawny country-pop decorated with fleeting hip-hop allusions (he nearly raps on "Beer with the Boys") and sly electronic rhythms and flourishes (such as the Speak N Spell that opens "Ready Set Roll"). As a vocalist, he lacks Bryan's guy-next-door charm and beefcake camaraderie, and his lack of affectation winds up emphasizing how his music is happily generic, assembled out of familiar hooks and product placements that will make it feel right at home wherever contemporary country radio is played, whether it's a mall or a buffalo wings bar. That lack of a distinctive personality may (or may not) prevent Ignite the Night from being a huge hit in

2014, but there's little question that with its worn-in, comfortable hooks and odes to suburban masculinity, it's a veritable time capsule of the bro country era.

Taste Of Country....serves up more of what fans love from the hit single ‘Ready Set Roll’ before offering some very satisfying, pensive ballads. The singer shows emotional depth, but not so much to distract fans from the unapologetic rock and R&B influenced showstoppers that make his live show an event to catch in 2014...Lyrics from songs like ‘Beach Town,’ ‘MMM Girl,’ ‘U Turn’ and ’50 Shades of Crazy’ best describe ‘Ignite the Night,’ an album drenched in rhythm and sexuality. “Your tan lines were the map for my hands to find their way,” Rice sings on ‘Beach Town,’ a soft ballad about a relaxing date on Carolina Beach....“And I got wandering hands getting lost in your wonderland” Rice sings amid the spoken-word verses of ‘U Turn.’

For The Country Record ....When one actually delves into the music, it becomes apparent that there’s little room for identifiably country sounds in the mix. Chase drifts through mid-2000s angsty and aggressive pop/rock and pop punk, turning to R&B for a “sick beat” and

plenty of EDM for the tracks that are the most digitally edited (auto-tune is a key part of basically every song), even moving into rap and hip hop as the album reaches its completion. There are heavy guitars, drum loops, synths and the fake token banjo that Florida Georgia Line practically pioneered, aligning himself with such a trajectory, while tracks like ‘U-Turn’ use the verses to push things even more electronic/rap to the point where the whole song could easily have been produced on a laptop. If that wasn’t enough, he takes the awful R&B of Jason Aldean’s ‘Burnin’ It Down’ and pushes it even further towards commercial saturation with ‘Ride’, a somewhat ambient, 100% electronic and overtly sexual offering that has no reference to country whatsoever. ..I get the feeling that the only reason Chase is in country is because he’s from North Carolina, and likes writing about small towns and trucks. Unfortunately for him, recording non-country music and calling it pushing boundaries does not mean that it is, it just means he’s been wrongly labelled and is stupid enough to believe the hype. This is a self-indulgent collection that clearly shows the missteps taken by the genre in the last few years that allow such artists to reach the mainstream, and also shows Chase moving from standard bro-fare to trying to incorporate every other genre into his music just to sound

different. It’s forced, and it sounds horrible. Here’s to hoping mainstream country fans feel the same way.

Spectrum Pulse >> Video Review "the death knell of bro-country and Chase Rise's major label debut"

Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Motley Crue (Motley/Eleven Seven/Big Machine/Big Machine Label Group) arrived at No.5 on Billboard 200 and made a No.2 bow on Top Country Albums selling 30,654 copies. This “star-studded” country compilation includes Rascal Flatts (“Kickstart My Heart”), Brantley Gilbert (“Girls, Girls, Girls”) and lead single Justin Moore (“Home Sweet Home,” featuring Motley Crue’s Vince Neil) are among the acts adding country flavor to the rockers’ classic catalog.

Scott Borchetta’s (Big Machine’s CEO) dream to bring a Motley Crue tribute album to the Country world is now complete it seems.

Florida Georgia Line took on the Crue song "If I Die Tomorrow" for the project. Looking back on their recording session for that song, FGL's Brian Kelley says, "[It was a] pretty cool experience to be a part of that album. It felt like magic that day we were in the studio." Rascal Flatts contributed a version of "Kickstart My Heart," and the band's Jay DeMarcus was very impressed with lead singer Gary LeVox's vocals on the song. Jay told ABC News Radio, "Gary was the perfect singer for that song, too, because not a lot of people can scream and sing as high as Vince Neil did, you know." Jay goes on to say the Flatts put their own stamp on the song. He explained, "The rule of thumb usually is, if you can't outdo the original, you shouldn't touch it."

Darius Rucker didn't even try to compete with the Motley Crue's version of "Time for Change" - "We said we're gonna start this record like we've never heard the song before," Darius says. "You know, we pretended we didn't know it,  and just went down

to the basics and came up with something that I'm really proud of."

Cassadee Pope, Eli Young Band, LeAnn Rimes and Big & Rich were also among the other artists featured.

Critical reception for “Various Artists - Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute to Mötley Crue” :

15 Tracks/ Time: 1:02:07 MP3 - UK iTunes - Smart Choice Music - Amazon.com 

Allmusic (Rating: 2.1/2 STARS)...In their heyday, Mötley Crüe stood so far apart from the Music City it wouldn't have come as a surprise that they never played Nashville but, as they say, strange times make strange bedfellows. In 2014, there's a generation of country singers raised on AOR rock and, more importantly, many of the teenage fans of the Crüe now buy country instead of metal, so the time is right for Nashville Outlaws, a tribute record that captures the Venn diagram of where hair metal meets rocking country. It is, perhaps

inevitably, a bit of a mess. Surprisingly, there's not much macho bluster here. A couple of the hardest tunes are given to bands known for their gentle touch -- the Eli Young Band reworks "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" so it has a bit of a groove but not much grit, but Rascal Flatts still sounds bound for the dentist office, no matter how much distortion is piled on the guitars -- while Justin Moore is saddled with a mock-duet with Vince Neil on "Home Sweet Home," and Brantley Gilbert sings "Girls Girls Girls" as if he was still hungover from "Bottoms Up." Better is Gretchen Wilson digging into "Wild Side" and Big & Rich, who slow "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)" down but find a bit of a spark. The same can be said for

LeAnn Rimes, who turns "Smokin' in the Boys Room" into a backporch jam, an imaginative spin that touches on the blues roots of Brownsville Station's original, but it's overshadowed by the wild, wonderful Tex-Mex revision of "Dr. Feelgood" by the Mavericks. Raul Malo and company hit a sweet spot for tribute albums: taking a beloved song and making it entirely their own. the Mavericks sound like outlaws, but elsewhere on Nashville Outlaws, the acts either are cautious (Darius Rucker's "Time for a Change") or are saddled with latter-day Crüe material that nobody knows (Aaron Lewis uses this to his advantage on

"Afraid," Florida Georgia Line less so on "If I Die Tomorrow"). Maybe it doesn't hold together but, then again, there never was a clear pathway for this tribute to proceed anyway. The Crüe and country may share some common ground, but it's ungainly and only intermittently appealing, as this odd record makes clear.

RollingStone (Rating: 2 STARS) ...Does the thought of Rascal Flatts covering "Kickstart My Heart" have you buzzing like a visit to Dr. Feelgood's office? Then this down-the-middle Mötley cöuntry compilation was made for you. Unfortunately, few of the 15 featured artists do anything more than rehash their assigned song – often omitting even the slight twang Nashville usually requires. Two exceptions: LeAnn Rimes, who gives a provocative reading of "Smokin' in the Boys Room," and the Mavericks, who ditch country and metal for a track that tries to imagine what salsa could sound like if it were produced by T Bone Burnett.

The Massachusetts native Joel Crouse with EVEN THE RIVER RUNS (Showdog/Universal) made a debut at No.183 on the BB200 (#20 Country) with sales around 2,000 copies.

The 22-year old “phenom” has come a long way from playing Nashville’s Lower Broadway – the street corners, to be exact, to making his debut on the Grand Ole Opry stage. The Country newcomer first came to the attention of country fans by touring with the likes of Taylor Swift (16 dates), Darius Rucker, Toby Keith, Sara Evans the Band Perry and even opened for the Goo Goo Dolls. Produced by Jamie Houston his debut studio album is on Toby Keith's Show Dog-Universal label. The 22-year-old singer released a video for the >> title track, giving fans a look at the performer and his band both onstage and behind the scenes.

Of the material on the new project, which was co-written with such Music City luminaries as Craig Wiseman, Luke Laird and James Dean Hicks, Crouse said, "My songs will always be about honest experience. I always want to be the one telling

my story." Even The River Runs is the story of Crouse’s personal journey – his joy, his struggles, his romances (for better or for worse).The album features the Massachusetts native's singles "Don't Tell Me" (which hit SiriusXM’s The Highway and was recently featured in the CW’s smash TV show Hart of Dixie) and "If You Want Some," along with fan favorite, "Why God Made Love Songs," and the track Crouse notes as his personal favorite, "Ruby Puts Her Red Dress On."

Crouse celebrated the release of the new album with a performance (“Don’t Tell Me” and “Summer Love”), live chat with fans and autograph signing at the Grand Ole Opry, the day the new project was officially released.

Critical reception for “Even The River Runs” :

CD - UK iTunes - Amazon.com 

For The Country Record ...Featuring strong melodies, well-written lyrics with detailed stories and a plethora of strongly country instrumentation, Joel is primed to take his position as a

non-bro summer anthem king with a lot more depth behind it... In each of these tracks Joel is singing about similar things to the bros, but manages to make it far more listenable, enjoyable and original, as well as having a far stronger grounding in country sounds.....Even though Joel looks like a pretty boy in the same vein as someone like Sam Hunt, he’s producing great music that incorporates a variety of sounds and styles, all while separating himself lyrically from his peers in a way that can only serve to provide him with credibility. And guess what? He’s just 22 years old. I hope Joel gets his chance to shine, because he deserves it.

Florida Georgia Line’s HERE’S TO THE GOOD TIMES remained in the Country Top 10 with sales now scanned over 2 million albums sold (2X certified Double Platinum) with a 90-week chart total of 2,004,000

In his second chart week Sam Hunt’s X2C EP fell 36-55 on the BB200 and 5-11 Country (sales down 38%)

Released on August 18th the Various artists project “Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited” which features artists such as Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Emmylou Harris; The Milk Carton Kids and Steve Earle made a debut at No.23 Country with sales probably registering less than 2,000 copies sold:

11 Tracks/ Time: 52:21 CD - MP3 - Smart Choice Music

American legend Tennessee Ernie Ford with Amazing Grace: 14 Treasured Hymns re-entered at No.24 Country. Initially it arrived at No.159 on the BB200 (#19 Country). It was released by the Gaither Music Group on July 22nd as a  collection of 14 hymns out of Ford's extensive canon.

2014 Country Album sales Year-To Date:

19,237,000 (Physical sales 12,738,000 (down 9%) + Digital sales 6,500,000 (down -15.3%)) which is 22.7% down at the same point in 2013 (24,892,000 sales)

Billboard Top 200 / Country Album Placings

(Issue dated Chart week of September 6, 2014)

(Country Album positions #1 - #25)

(TW) This Week, (LW) Last Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing / Movement)

^{Billboard Catalog Chart}

Of the 52 Catalog albums on the Billboard 200 this chart week marked the return for many weeks at No.152 for Taylor Swift with RED (Big Machine/| BMLG) which sold another 2,200 copies with a new tally of 4,057,000.

It also re-entered the Billboard Top Catalog Albums charts at No.32 reaching a new peak in only its second week on the chart. With her new album “1989” coming out in October a Miss Swift resurgence on the Catalog charts is possible.

Her albums spent 109 weeks on the Catalog chart in 2012, but that dropped to 40 weeks in 2013 and, so far in 2014, just three weeks. Billboard magazine ranks the best selling catalog titles, regardless of genre and defines a catalog title as one that is more than 18-months old and that has fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200. 
Albums which meet this criteria are removed from the Billboard Current Albums rankings and begin a new chart runs on Top Pop Catalog Albums.

RED made its debut at No.45 as a Catalog album on the chart dated May 10, 2014.

Taylor Swift on the Catalog Charts - Year by Year:

(Legend: Title (Weeks on chart in each year 2008-2014) = Total weeks)

1. The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2-9-11-10-8-4-0) = 44 weeks

2. Taylor Swift (0-0-40-43-22-9-1) = 115 weeks

3. Fearless (0-0-0-46-48-14-0) = 108 weeks

4. Speak Now (0-0-0-0-31-13-0) = 44 weeks

5. Red (in 2014) = 2 weeks

Totals: (2-9-51-99-109-40-3) = 313 weeks

Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of September 6, 2014)

On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which blends:

a) All-format airplay, as monitored by BDS 

b) Sales, as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and

c) Streaming, (tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) according to BDS it results in:

• Jason Aldean claimed his longest chart-topping ride on Hot Country Songs with “Burnin’ It Down” (Broken Bow), which dominates for a fifth consecutive frame. The song surpassed his four-week reign with “Big Green Tractor” in 2009. “Burnin’ ” adds Streaming Gainer honours with an 8 percent lift to 2.6 million. The track tops Country Streaming songs for a third straight week.
• Dustin Lynch claims his second top 10 with “Where It’s At (Yep, Yep)” (Broken Bow), which jumped 14-9. He previously reached the upper region with “Cowboys and Angels,” which peaked at No. 2 on Oct. 13, 2012.
• Chase Rice's  lead single “Ready Set Roll,” reached a new peak (15-13) in its 38th week. It has sold 706,000 downloads so far and ranks at No.27 on Country Digital Songs (11,000 sold). On Country Streaming Songs, “Roll” re-entered at No.18 (757,000 total U.S. streams, up 22%), with 51% of its weekly total via Spotify.

Top 25 Hot Country Songs:

Jason Aldean with “Burnin’ It Down” stays Top the chart! 

Florida Georgia Line with former #1 “Dirt” holds at #2

Kenny Chesney with “American Kids” holds at #3

Dierks Bentley with “Drunk On A Plane” a non-mover at #4

Lady Antebellum with “Bartender” sticks at #5

Sam Hunt with “Leave The Night On” climbs two, #8 - #6 p

Tim McGraw feat Faith Hill with “Meanwhile Back At Mama’s” holds at #7

Luke Bryan with “Roller Coaster” lifts four, #12 - #8 p

Dustin Lynch with “Where It’s At” (Yep, Yep) jumps up five, #14 - #9 p

Lee Brice with “I Don’t Dance” falls four, #6 - #10 q

Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood’s former #1 “Somethin’ Bad” stay at #11

Cole Swindell with “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” slips two, #10 - #12 q

Chase Rice with “Ready Set Roll” is up two, #15 - #13 p

Brad Paisley with “River Bank” drops one, #13 - #14 q

Brantley Gilbert with “Small Town Throwdown” is up one, #16 - #15 p

Frankie Ballard with “Sunshine & Whiskey” climbs two, #18 - #16 p

Maddie & Tae with “Girl In A Country Song” holds at #17

Blake Shelton with “Neon Light” rockets #41 - #18 p

Little Big Town with “Day Drinking” stays at #19

Eric Church with “Cold One” sticks at #20

Eli Young Band with “Dust” settles at #21

The Swon Brothers with “Later On” lifts one, #23 - #22 p

Keith Urban with “Somewhere In My Car” is up two, #25 - #23 p

Zac Brown with “All Alright” holds at #24

Big & Rich with “Look At You” move up two, #27 - #25 p

Hot County Songs

** No.1 (5 weeks)/ Streaming Gainer ** “Burnin’ It Down” Jason Aldean

** Digital Gainer ** No.6 “Leave The Night On” Sam Hunt

** Airplay Gainer ** No.12 “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight” Cole Swindell

** Hot Shot Debut ** No.32 “Girls In Bikinis” Lee Brice

Debut No.37 "Country Nation" Brad Paisley

Debut No.44 "Shattered Glass" Brad Paisley

Billboard Country Airplay Chart Week of September 6, 2014

Dierks Bentley held for a second week at No.1 on the Billboards Country Airplay tally with “Drunk on a Plane” (Capitol Nashville), marking his first multiweek leader since “Sideways” finished a two-week stand atop the July 18, 2009 chart. His longest chart-topping run is the three weeks that “Come a Little Closer” notched nine years ago. 
In its 21st chart week “Drunk” logged 48.275 million audience impressions (+1.386 million) and received  7,505 radio plays (+181).

• With spins at 115 of 143 total reporters Blake Shelton scored the highest debut among his 37 career Country Airplay chart entries, as "Neon Lights" (Warner Bros./Warner Music Nashville) launched at No.18 to land Hot Shot Debut honours. The start (driven significantly by coordinated hourly play Aug. 18 on Clear Channel Media and Entertainment-owned stations) beating out the No.19 entrance of his "Boys 'Round Here" (featuring Pistol Annies & Friends) on the April 13, 2013 list. "Lights" previews Shelton's ninth studio album, BRINGING BACK THE SUNSHINE, due Sept. 30 with the song being offered by iTunes and Walmart.com as an instant download for customers who pre-order the new album. Shelton’s lofty debut with “Light” marked the second-highest start this year, outpaced only by Florida Georgia Line’s No. 16 bow with “Dirt” (Republic Nashville) on the July 26 chart. The only other top 20 debut this year: Jason Aldean’s “Burnin’ It Down” (Broken Bow), which entered the Aug. 9 chart at No.19. Shelton’s “Neon Light” logged 20.337 million audience impressions, a gain of +20.329 million and received 2,608 radio plays (+2,603) thanks to 98 fresh radio commitments (ADDS) to also bag Most Increased Audience and Most Added trophies
• Bi-Curious Spins: With 617,000 audience impressions at 27 Country Airplay chart panelists during the Aug. 18-24 BDS tracking week, Taylor Swift’s new pop single “Shake It Off” (Big Machine/Republic) entered the Country Airplay chart at No.58! Forty-three percent of its Country Airplay audience were from 15 plays at KSCS Dallas during the Aug. 18-24 tracking week, the spin leader for the song in that span. The only other reporter that played the song at least seven times during the week was WSIX Nashville (10). “Shake” the lead single from her fifth studio album “1989” (out Oct. 27) was by Tay’s own admission an all-out pop release.
• Montgomery Gentry made a debut on Country Airplay for the first time in nearly two years, as “Headlights” (Blaster) arrived at No.52 with spins at 42 monitored stations. That marked the duo’s highest debut since “Long Line of Losers” rolled in at No.48 on June 27, 2009.  

Women of Country 2014 Watch:

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs Miranda Lamberts’ duet with Carrie Underwood Somethin’ Bad” fell 13-14 in its 14th chart week. “Girl In A Country Song” by Maddie & Tae held at No.26..

RaeLynn #36, Jana Kramer #37 Kacey Musgraves #39,  Linsay Ell #53, Taylor Swift #58 and Lucy Hale at No.59 were the six solo females in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 10.0% of the entire Top 60 chart.

Country Airplay

*** No. 1 (2 weeks)*** "Drunk On A Plane" Dierks Bentley

** Hot Shot Debut/ Most Increased Audience/ Most Added ** No.18 "Neon Light" Blake Shelton

Debut No. 52 "Headlights" Montgomery Gentry

Debut No. 58 "Shake It Off" Taylor Swift

                                                         

 Billboard Country Digital Singles Chart Week of September 6, 2014

• Jason Aldean's "Burnin' It Down" (Broken Bow / BBMG) held at No.1 with 83,000 downloads sold (down 11%) and also fell at 9-11 on the all genre Digital Songs chart in its fifth chart frame. The now GOLD single has sold 582,000 units to date.
• Sam Hunt at No.4 and Dierks Bentley (4-6) swapped slots as “Leave The Night On” jumped into the Top 5.
• Blake Shelton with “Neon Light” (Warner Bros/ WMN) made a debut at No.12 selling 28,000.
• Maddie & Tae moved up 2 rungs 15-13 with “Girl In A Country Song” representing the females on the Top 30 joining Miranda Lamberts’ duet with Carrie Underwood Somethin’ Bad” which improved 9-8 in its 14th week.
• Lee Brice with “Girls In Bikinis” made a bow at No.19 (18,000 sales)

• On the all genre Billboard Digital Songs chart Taylor Swift’s pop single “Shake It Off” (Big Machine/ BMLG) made a bow at No.1 selling 544,000 downloads in its first week — the biggest sales week of 2014 and the fourth-largest debut week ever (Taylor's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" sold 623,000 on the chart Sept. 1, 2012).
• She also land at No.1 on The Billboard Hot 100 chart (based on radio play, streaming online, and sales. It was released  for digital purchase and to radio, and premiered its official video on Aug 18th, the same day that she hosted a Yahoo! live stream announcing the new set's release. Taylor also performed "Shake" on the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (Aug. 24). "Shake" is just the 22nd of the Hot 100's 1,038 No.1s all-time to debut at the pinnacle. (Cue up a celebratory chorus of Swift's "22.")
• The explosion of "Shake" also spurred Swift to vault to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (which measures song and album sales, radio airplay, streaming and social activity), up from No. 69 last week.
• Taylor entered at #15 on the Billboard Top 40 (based on radio airplay) this week with "Shake It Off," tying the all-time record
• ”Shake” also has the largest one week increase in spins at 7787 spins on Hot Adult Contemporary
• Taylor set a record for the highest debut in the history of Billboard's Adult Pop Songs radio airplay chart, when "Shake" blasted in at No.9. On the Pop Songs chart it soared in at No.12, tying the record for the best-ever launch."This historic launch represents impeccable set-up and teamwork with precise execution," said Charlie Walk, executive vp Republic Records, who are promoting "Shake" to pop radio. "Most importantly, it further emphasizes the power of Taylor and her world-class music."
• With "Shake’s" entry on Adult Pop Songs it becomes the first song to bow in the top 10 since the chart launched in Billboard magazine's pages on March 16, 1996. It bests the No.13 start of Alanis Morissette's "Thank U" on Oct. 10, 1998.
• Helping fuel the record start for "Shake": hourly plays on participating Clear Channel and Media Entertainment-owned pop and adult pop radio stations in its first day and a half.
• In Australia “Shake It Off” jumped to the top of the ARIA Charts! It’s Taylor’s second #1 single down under.

Women Of Country Watch

There were no solo female artists on the Top 30 placings. On the Top 50 the lone female was RaeLynn with “God Made Girls” moved 44-43

Dropping off the Top 30:

14-31 Kenny Chesney “Flora-Bama”

27-33 Billy Currington “We Are Tonight”

28-34 Sam Hunt “Ex To See”

Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music (published August 28, 2014)

 (LW) Last Week (TW) This Week

*Numbers are rounded to nearest 1000^th

Country Aircheck/ Mediabase chart

Dierks Bentley remained at No1 on Mediabase with “Drunk On A Plane’” (Capitol).
In its second week atop the summit the song logged 7,882 radio spins (+260) and 56.024 million

Click to Enlarge

audience impressions (+1.069 million) from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week Aug 17 to August 23, 2014 and published chart August 25th.

Congratulations to UMG Nashville SVP/Promotion Royce Risser, Capitol Nashville VP/Promotion Steve Hodges and their entire promo team for scoring the second consecutive weekat #1 song on the MEDIABASE Country singles chart, with Bentley's "Drunk On A Plane." 
This made it his 12th career #1 and the second #1 single off his "Riser" album which dropped in February

Congratulations also go to Warner Music Nashville (WMN) SVP/Promotion Kevin Herring, VP/Promotion Kristen Williams, Dir./National Promotion Katie Bright, and the entire WMN Promo team for earning 65 MEDIABASE Country adds with Blake Shelton's "Neon Lights" Those adds gave Blake the "Most Added" title for two weeks in a row!.

Bagels were due to be delivered to WMN's office (August 26th) to congratulate the staff on their achievement.

For a detailed report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 411 - August 25, 2014 [PDF File]

For the very latest up to the minute Mediabase Chart (Past 7 Days) go here - www.mediabase.com